Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway

On July 6, 2009

If my daddy were still alive and my son was still five they would have spent their entire vacation at The Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway. I enjoyed it immensely–totally relaxing journey on a scale train that runs right next to the walls of people’s homes; however, for families with small children (particularly boys) RHDR is a little slice of railway heaven.

Inside there is, of course, a gift shop but not anything hard sell (although my father and his grandson would have walked out with at least a book and some sort of train) plus an impressive array of model trains chugging through a detailed and somewhat lived-in landscape.

Getting a close up view

Outside there is a small restaurant with limited hours and an ice cream stand but more importantly–there are trains: expertly (as far as I, certainly no expert, can determine) rendered, showered with care and ridden with great pleasure–ridden by those just out for an interesting day in the sun on a realistic old fashioned steam engine, like me; ridden by families looking for a day out that works for everyone; ridden by those who live and breathe trains, like my departed and much missed father and my son when he was five.

We started with a short but unhurried look around the model train displays which will interest all but the hardest of tourist hearts; then it was outside to board one of the many brightly colored locomotives that have been travelling some version of the tracks since 1927. My father could have named almost all–if not all–of them, I’m sure, I can only offer a few pictures.

Maroon engine...

Black engine...

Green engine steaming...

Blue engine being loved...

Inside the blue engine...

We steamed off from Hythe Station with another couple and their well behaved child.

Hythe Station

The other cars were filled with train buffs from young to old and families with excited children and older siblings trying not to be excited. On our relaxing trip the train rolled through marshes, sand dunes and almost within arm stretch distance of residential backyards. The journey ended at Dungeness Station with its forty-five year old lighthouse (regrettably no entry) and small restaurant and picnic grounds.

Lighthouse at Dungeness Station

With so many other places to visit on this trip, we took the immediate turn around trip and went in search of a sit down Sunday lunch with beer; my dearly missed daddy and my son at age five would be there still.